


Just a Nap

by Inknpaperlove



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adorable and Awkward Dorks Being Friends, Adrinette, Bonus Identity Reveal, Fluff, Gen, LadyNoir - Freeform, Mentioned Alya Césaire and Nino Lahiffe, but probably not how you're thinking, caused by freckles, naps and cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-12-29 20:01:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18300992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inknpaperlove/pseuds/Inknpaperlove
Summary: Keeping up with akumas on top of the everyday trials and tribulations of being a teenager leads to Marinette and Adrien missing out on their much needed sleep. And how else are they meant to catch up on it if not with naps? Or better yet, naps with a friend!Naps and cuddles! Fluff galore!





	1. It's Free Napping Radicals!

**Author's Note:**

> The POV switches are numerous with this one. Was supposed to be a one shot, now split into five chapters because it got way out of hand and also it somehow felt better?? It’s pre-written so double update today and then a new chapter should be up daily.

Marinette was tired.

She got a sudden gust of inspiration last night and she just _had_ to sketch out her dress idea in various versions before solidifying the final design, so it was already pretty late when she finally turned in for the night. But then, of course, there must have been _someone_ , who got upset enough at four in the morning to get akumatized, and of course, Papillon couldn’t let this chance to torture the heroes of Paris go. 

Sure, he got woken up by his neighbour slamming their door every single work day at four in the morning when leaving for whatever their job was, so Marinette could see where he was coming from. But she did not appreciate having to be woken up by an akuma at such an unseemly hour, blaring alarms all over Paris and having to be one of the two people who actually had to get up and fight said akuma. Destroying the giant alarm clocks thankfully wasn’t that hard, so Paris could easily go back to sleep, but unfortunately the rest of the fight didn’t go as well, so Marinette returned home just in time to get woken up by her own alarm just an hour later.

So yeah, she didn’t sleep much, once again, and was cursing Papillon as the bane of her existence that he was. Once again.

She sluggishly made herself a coffee in a tumbler, grimacing at the smell. Adding in a heap of cream and sugar, she was happy her mom was busy with the morning rush and couldn’t see her - she already got enough of “you’re too young to be drinking coffee” speeches combined with the “you’re a growing girl, you need your sleep” appeal. She understood where her mom was coming from, though, so she tried to at least limit her coffee intake to there-was-an-akuma-and-I-am-dead situations.

 She grabbed the snack her mom prepared for her, put it in her bag, took a croissant on her way through the bakery, kissed her parents goodbye and set out to school.

“Damn, girl, you look exhausted,” said Alya instead of greeting.

“Yeah, I know.” Marinette took a sip of her coffee. “I have a mirror and all that.”

Alya snorted and slipped into her seat.

“The akuma?” she asked.

“Mhm. Couldn’t fall back asleep after that. Had a late night too,” Marinette murmured into her cup.

“Well, it seems like you’re not the only one. Buttercup over there looks pretty out of it, too.” She pointed her chin at a yawning Adrien sitting in front of them.

Marinette nodded slowly and took another sip. That’s when the bell rang and she could just sadly push her tumbler to the side as their teacher started the lesson. Leaning on her hand heavily, she took notes, hoping they won’t turn out to be illegible scribbles later. The recent increase of akuma attacks and especially the night ones had a bigger impact on her academic career than she liked.

Thankfully, the coffee helped her get through the first half of the day. When the final bell rang, she was more than happy to head to the cafeteria for lunch. She was settling down at the table her friends snatched when she overheard Alya talking to Nino about her history assignment.

She groaned loudly.

“That was for today?” she asked them, slapping her hand to her forehead. “I can’t believe I forgot to finish it.”

“Well, you still have the rest of lunch break to do it,” Nino offered.

“Yeah. Guess I do.”

Marinette whined again before quickly shovelling her lunch in, waving goodbye to her friends and rushing to the library.

It was thankfully pretty empty, much like the rest of the school, with most of the students and staff out for lunch either at home or in the cafeteria. Marinette sat at the study tables up in the front, knowing full well that if she tried to do her assignment sitting on one of the comfortable couches in the back she had no chance at keeping her heavy eye lids open. She pulled out her tablet and set to turning the last of her haphazard notes into neat paragraphs of well communicated information.

Some time later, with the papers freshly printed by the librarian safely put away in her bag, she dragged herself towards the sitting area at the back and flopped down on one of the couches. With how often she used them for naps she could be pretty much counted in as a part of the library inventory. Fussing a bit to get comfortable and curling up, it wasn’t long before her eyes shut and she fell asleep.

***

Adrien was tired.

Not only he had a lengthy photoshoot the day before, which drained him of all his energy, until his signature sunshine look was only made purely of a thick layer of make up and post production editing, but then he also had to do his homework. To top it off, after finally getting to bed, the shrill of the akumas alarms woke him up just a couple hours since falling asleep. He pushed through his morning classes by pure willpower, but now he was intensely ready for a powernap.

After lunch he asked his bodyguard to drop him right off to school again and went for the library. There were some couches at the back that were calling his name, once again. He was honestly thinking about donating some money for the library as a thanks for how many times their couches saved him from napping on his desk bench in the classroom. Well, him and someone else, apparently. Adrien chuckled slightly at the sight of his friend spawned all over a couch, limbs thrown in every direction and light snores escaping her open mouth. All of her responsibilities in school, at home and as a budding designer often left her tired, so he saw her often taking naps in the library, like he did. He was glad Marinette got to take a much needed nap herself - when he’d seen her in the morning she looked about as bad as he felt.

He shrugged off his bag and lay on a couch next to her, hoping she wouldn’t mind. They were friends and it was acceptable for friends to be found napping in the same general area of a public space, right? Even if he usually left for the other couch area if he found her sleeping here and she seemed to do the same if she was the one who came later. Though that didn’t happen very often, usually she was napping here long before he came back from lunch at home.  Too tired for this train of thought, he rubbed his eye and didn’t bother suppressing a yawn as he wiggled into a more comfortable position, with his head on one of the library pillows, and easily fell asleep.

Unfortunately, his nap was interrupted far too early in his humble opinion. The school bell shrilled through the halls signifying the start of a new period and promptly startled him out of his dream of chasing ladybugs - the insects, not duplicates of a certain superheroine, sadly - with such a force he fell down from his couch and spilled right under the feet of one seriously drowsy Marinette.

“What the ... What?” She gave him a weird, partly confused look, which first got interrupted by a yawn and second by her realisation that she’s already supposed to be in a class by now.

“Oh, shoot!”  

Adrien quickly got himself up, blushing hard with embarrassment, and grabbed his bag. Marinette did the same and as soon as she was ready he took her by hand and pulled her with him as they ran to their next class.

Their history teacher was not at all impressed when Adrien stuttered out an excuse of having been “caught up in the library studying” and “forgetting the time”. Especially since both of them already had a fairly questionable attendance record.

 For some reason she didn’t actually scold them too much and her mouth was all crooked, as if she was fighting a smile, which really confused Adrien. He looked at the class for a clue, but most of them seemed to be having the same problem. So he turned to Marinette and it finally came to his attention that not only she was stiffly rooted to the spot and way redder in the face than their short run should induce, but he also belatedly noticed he was still holding her hand.

Feeling his own face growing hotter by the second, he quickly let go of Marinette’s hand and with his head hung low he mumbled one more sorry. To the teacher or to his friend, he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Go to your seats. We’re dissolving the Austro-Hungarian Empire today and we’ve already been held up enough.” The teacher sighed and shook her head. “And I’ll need your assignments.”

At those words Marinette unfroze and with an expression one could call triumphant produced two papers covered in text from her bag, handed it out and almost ran to get to her seat. Adrien followed her suit and did his best to pay full attention to the continuation of their lesson, while ignoring all of the elbow nudging and suggestive looks of his best friend

***

Marinette was not lucky enough to wake up before the bell rang. But that was okay with her, since instead she got to be lucky enough to wake up to Adrien Agreste, dishevelled from sleep, literally lying at her feet.

She agonized throughout all of her history lesson that she didn’t even get to properly enjoy that majestic moment of impossibly good luck, but then again, she also got to run hand in hand with him, so that counted for something too.  She has never been so happy to have her sleeping schedule ruined by an akuma.

“Hey.”

Adrien’s soft greeting took her out of her daydreaming. She blinked a few times, getting her bearings and noticing she missed the end of the lesson. People were chatting among themselves, snacking, some out of the class. Both Alya and Nino were gone, though Marinette vaguely recollected them saying something about going to get a drink from the automat in the locker room, maybe?  So it was mostly just her and Adrien, who was currently turned in his seat, his arms propped on the top of her desk.

“Hi.” She waved at him awkwardly, her face tainted pink.

“I’m glad you got to sleep over the lunch, you looked pretty tired in the morning. And, uh, I just wanted to say sorry for the, um-”

He gestured towards her hand.

“Oh, no, don’t apologize. I don’t mind at all, honestly.  It just... surprised me? Yeah, that. But really, no big deal, you can hold my hand whenever you want. No, I mean! Not like that, but! If you’d want to, I... uh,” she rambled.

“Are you sure, though? You seemed quite uncomfortable and I-.” Adrien scratched the back of his neck. “I wouldn’t want to make you feel that way.”

“Not at all, no. No discomfort here.” Marinette hurried to assure him. “You’re my friend, Adrien. Of course I don’t mind. Like I said, it just surprised me.”

She smiled at him kindly and to prove her words, she reached out to take his hand and squeezed it. Her mind might have been all screaming and panic, but she tried her best not to let it show. She was _not_ going to give Adrien a reason to avoid touching her.

In reward, she got a brilliant smile from him and a squeeze back. Marinette could have died right then and there and not notice.

“Alright. I’m glad.”

He was about to let go of her hand and turn back, when she caught it once more.

“And hey, I’m glad you got to sleep too, I wasn’t the only one needing a nap this morning.”

He smiled sheepishly.

“Yeah, you’re right.”


	2. Initiation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien may be an awkward dork, but he has a Very Important Question to ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, double update today!

Ever since that incident, Adrien’s life was great. His schedule hit an unexpected lull of tempo and he was doing his best to exploit every second of it. Not only he’d finally managed to properly catch up with his school work (his superhero career being an infinite rival to his study time), but he was also able to spend quite a lot of time hanging out with his friends, laughing, playing games, talking, teasing and overall having so much fun.

Papillon seemed to have taken it easy on Paris’ tired superheroes as of late, the akuma attacks less violent and further in between. Coincidentally, Adrien’s father was swamped with work - an important collaboration not working out too well while still stuck in the initial design phase - which meant less work responsibilities for Adrien to attend to. Sure, it’ll be a considerable maelstrom of fittings, photoshoots and the like once the collaboration line is done, but that was a problem for a future Adrien.

So yeah, life was great.

Until the line went into its finishing stages and was hurriedly pushed into making the deadline. The future was now and Adrien was practically keeling over from the nightmarish weekend filled to brim with cameras and softboxed lights shoved in his face. Everything was late and nobody was happy.  They even green screened all the backgrounds to save time dealing with sets, which was a new personal low in the eyes of Gabriel Agreste. The atmosphere was so tense Adrien was jumpy with anticipation of an akuma in the making - which - turns out there _was_ an akuma attack in the city. Except with Adrien changing from one outfit to another in rapid succession, hair and make-up people dancing around him and the camera shutters constantly clicking, he had no time to check his phone to find out what was going on three arrondissements over and only heard the news late in the night, frustratingly just minutes after an exhausted Ladybug cleansed the cursed butterfly.

Adrien felt awful for letting his partner fight alone, albeit unknowingly, especially since this attack was particularly tough on her and lasted well into the night. He’d shortly transformed, just to leave a voice mail on her compact - checking up on her, explaining his absence, and apologizing. After that he toppled onto his bed and immediately fell asleep.

The next morning he was dragging his feet on the school stairs and plopped down next to Nino, munching slowly on a whole grain toast Nathalie shoved into his hands along with a tumbler of peppermint tea after she’d shaken him awake just in time for him to get dressed, clean his teeth and leave for school immediately, since he slept through both of his alarms.

“Hi.” He waved in the general direction of his best friend and yawned.

“Dude. When you said you’ll get killed by this line’s photoshoots, I didn’t know you meant it literally.”

 Adrien didn’t have time to answer as the classroom door opened to reveal one dead on her feet Marinette Dupain-Cheng. He sat up straighter and frowned.

“Is everyone dead today?” asked Nino incredulously. “I know it’s Monday and all, but still, dudes.”

Marinette gifted him a particularly unimpressed stare as she trotted towards her seat, her hair so messy her trademark pigtails were nearly lost in all the tangles. The boys turned in their seats to face the girls behind them.

“Girl, what did you do?” Alya turned to her a hair comb already in her hand.

They had about two minutes to the bell and then only a little while before their teacher came in, so she had to work quickly - turning her friend to face away from her and starting to detangle the hair ties out of her hair.

“Late night.” Marinette yawned. “I was working on the pin tuck blouse on Saturday, you know, that one, and I lost track of time doing all those stupid tucks and got to bed ridiculously late. Really, why did I think making a blouse with so many pin tucks on it was a good idea? I mean it turned out gorgeous so far so I guess it was worth it. Anyway, I wanted to catch up on sleep yesterday, but the akuma just had to set up base in the park next to us, so I didn’t get to sleep until that was finished too and‑”

She yawned again.

“Oh, Mar. That’s rough.” She finished combing her hair and set a hand on her shoulder, before smirking and lightly bumping her on the back with her fist.

“Buddy.”

Marinette snorted and took the comb from her, finishing the pigtails by herself.

“I’ve got fresh peppermint tea, if you want some,” Adrien piped up from below them, offering her his tumbler.

Marinette shook her head slowly and smiled at him.

“I’m good, thanks. It may not look like it, but I did get up early enough to have breakfast at home.”

“Unlike someone else,” noted Alya and gave him a toothy grin.

Adrien made a face at her for the light tease and both he and Nino turned back towards the chalkboard just in time for their teacher to walk in.

The morning was not an easy one for Adrien and from what he glanced behind him, Marinette wasn’t faring much better. Whatever energy they mustered up for the first period was slowly but surely leaving them, they kept losing focus and the short breaks in between classes were not enough to get their spirits up. By the time their lunch pause finally approached, Adrien had a plan.

“Marinette?” He turned back to his classmate as she was packing her things.

“Hm?”

Adrien scratched the back of his neck, trying to calm his nerves. It was okay. Marinette was his friend, good friend even, and as such she enjoyed his presence to at least some degree, right? And they’ve done this before too, sort of, in a way. Except then it mostly just happened and now he was asking, and... No, he had to do it before he talked himself out of it.

“So, you’re going to the cafeteria for lunch right? I’m going home, but when I’m back, would you... um... Are you going to take a nap in the library again? Would you mind if I did too?”

Marinette stared at him for a while, trying to process what he was saying.

“Yeah, that was my plan, but... Adrien, I’m not the queen of the library, you don’t have to ask me to take a nap there?” She leaned her head to the side in her confusion.

Nino and Alya, both way more alert than their respective best friends, had, like the rest of the class, already packed up their things, but were waiting by the side for Marinette to join them for lunch and thoroughly enjoying the scene unfolding before them.

“I know but-” Adrien forced a little nervous laugh. “I was asking if you would mind if I took that nap, like, in your general proximity? Like last time?”

Marinette furrowed her eyebrows, not registering the unsubtle way their best friends were slowly losing in their fight to suppress giggles.

“Are you asking if we can ... nap _together_?” she ask, bewildered.

Nino let out a huge snort, before catching and holding his nose and mouth, while making apologetic gestures with his other hand.

“On a different piece of furniture, but yes, as a group activity.” Adrien was certain that there was absolutely no way he could have said that in a more awkward way. His face was burning and he was sure it showed too.

He was ready to take it back when Marinette seemed to square her shoulders and gave him a slightly wobbly smile.

“I... Yeah, okay. Let’s - Let’s do that.” The telltale red spread quickly over her cheeks. “You’ll... uh... find me, then?”

Adrien let out a breath of relief and nodded with more vehemence than strictly needed.

“Yeah, I’ll... do that.”

At that moment a still giggling Alya appeared on Marinette’s right and helped her finish packing the last of her stuff before practically dragging her out of the classroom by her hand.

Nino was cackling at the door.

“Dude, you know you didn’t really have to ask her like that? That has to be the most second hand embarrassment inducing thing I’ve ever seen you do. ‘On a different piece of furniture’ man, you’re killing me.”

Adrien sat down in his place and hit his head against the desk.

“Can I use the home school card again?”

Nino snorted.

“Dude, you use that way too often.  I’m starting to think it’s just you. Anyway, gotta go catch up, or they leave me to wait in the lunch queue all alone. Have fun on your nap date, bro!”

And with that Nino ran off after his girlfriend and her best friend, leaving Adrien alone in the classroom.

Though no amount of teasing from his friends could make Adrien regret asking when he indeed found Marinette, already napping in the library, and laid down on a couch next to her. She knew he was going to come, so even if she was already knocked out, and he was going to follow soon, it did feel like spending time with his friend. That thought left him feeling warm and he smiled as he closed his eyes and easily fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it!!


	3. Propagation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette is a brave and confident girl, with a Very Important Plan to put into action.

A few days later, it was Marinette who was nervously pushing through a perhaps weirdly phrased invitation.

Throughout the week she’d easily caught up on lost sleep - her blouse project on hold till she finally decided on what exactly she wanted to do with the collar, and Papillon seemed to be having a bit of a holiday recently, save for the one akumatized Gabriel intern on Wednesday.

Adrien, though, was not that lucky. He had to leave school at least a class earlier if not more every day for last minute fittings and photoshoots for his father’s collaboration line and he complained to his friends about not only missing classes, but also his extracurriculars and how he had to cram his heaps of make-up homework either in car rides or late into the night. Nino has taken to bringing him caffeinated drinks in the morning and Marinette took it as her duty to supply him with various treats and they did what they could to help him catch up on the study material in what little free time he did have, but they still wished they could do more. Adrien’s week was about just as crazy as his weekend was and his father, irritated at the delay of the line, was not helping with his determination to power through to the deadline.

The result of this determination has left Adrien, along with majority of the company’s employees, in a dire state of tiredness, and Marinette, in turn, was determined to change that. And a determined Marinette was a confident Marinette. She had a plan and she was not going to let anything stop her. Thankfully it was already Friday and the only thing left to do with the Gabriel line was rounds of editing and finalizing publishing, so Adrien was finally free, to his own happiness as well as the happiness of his friends, who were thoroughly worried for the health of their friend.

Actually, Adrien was even a bit free-er since his fencing lesson has been rescheduled as his teacher had fallen ill. Which Marinette found out by Adrien telling her, as his friend, and not by something like listening in on peoples’ conversations or looking it up on the school notice board. No, Marinette was Adrien’s good friend, and he told her stuff like having an unexpectedly free afternoon. Especially since they’ve gotten so much closer now, thanks to the event of what Alya and Nino teasingly called their nap date.

Somehow, taking a nap in close proximity to each other seemed to be something they both enjoyed and it projected into their not-sleeping relationship too. Not that they had much time to develop said friendship since Adrien’s week of hell got in the way. Which brought Marinette to this - Adrien was free and also very tired and Marinette had a plan to help remedy that.

So she stood now, at the steps of the school with her friends and before Adrien could alert Nathalie about the change in his afternoon, she put that plan in action. If Nathalie knew, then she would certainly find some postponed activity Adrien ‘neglected’ this week in favour of working and would fill up his schedule again and that would just not do. Adrien needed to take a pause, however short. After all, his sleep schedule couldn’t get any worse by now - he said he unexpectedly nodded off in hair and make-up way more often than he was proud of this week.

She faked a long yawn, stretched, and rubbed her eye.

“Oh, I can’t believe school tired me out so much today,” she said, subtly playing it up.

She knew Adrien was prone to helping his friends and if she pretended to be sleepy he was more likely to accept her request for another co-nap. Besides, she _did_ feel a bit tired from their workload, so she wasn’t even lying too much.

“Yeah?”

Adrien yawned in response to her own. Alya and Nino, already informed about her plan quickly bid them goodbye and left together, waving and giving them both warm grins.

“Yeah. So I was thinking... I mean... I had this idea-” she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.

“I was thinking I could take a small nap, you know.  And I thought I could ask you to join in? Since you’re free now.”

She was bright red and wringing her hands together but she kept her eyes straight on him, not wavering for a second.

“Oh,” he said in a small voice. “I... yeah, okay.  That sounds like a good idea. But... um-”

“First I just wanted to go home, but since you’re going, well, it’s a nice day. How about I pop by for a picnic blanket and we set it up in the park? You can find us some nice place there before I return?”

Adrien smiled at her - a tired, but affectionate lift of his lips.

“Alright.”

Marinette wriggled in her place and nodded enthusiastically.

“Okay.  Do you want me to drop off your bag at my home? So you don’t have to worry about it? I’ll be leaving my bag there too, so it’s no problem.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice. Thank you.”

They slowly set off to the park, mostly making small talk. Marinette was glad she managed to pull this plan together. Adrien was seriously exhausted and this would surely help him out. In between his short replies to her he didn’t even notice she chatted with way more chipper energy than her supposedly tired state should allow.

As they reached the entrance to the park, Marinette turned back to face her friend. She made a grabby motion towards his bag and he easily fished his phone out of it before handing it over.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” he asked.

“Nah, I’m fine, really. Go find us some nice place; I’ll be back before you know it!”

With that she shot off in the direction of her family’s bakery.

 “See you soon!” she shouted over her shoulder.

She grinned the whole way to her home, where she told her mother behind the counter in short outbursts where she’s going, with whom and why, then she climbed the stairs to the living room, quickly shook off the two bags, leaning them against the sofa and grabbed the blanket. She only kept her little purse with her phone and keys, in case her parents needed to reach her and after a bit of deliberating she took a small sketchbook and a pencil with her too, then she ran off again, towards the park

She found Adrien in a fairly secluded outer part of the park, but still frequented enough by passersby that she wouldn’t feel too worried to take a quick nap. He was sitting against the trunk of a big tree, almost nodding off already. She waved to catch his attention. Soon they had the blanket set up and were lying on their sides, facing each other.

The late spring sun was warm on their skin and the bustle of the city, muffled by the greenery around them, made for a nice background noise. Marinette quirked an eyebrow when she saw Adrien try to settle first with one hand, then both hands under his head. Finally he set up, shrugged off his over shirt, folded it and laid it on his arms as a temporary pillow before finally settling down.

“I need to have my head up to sleep,” he explained quietly.

She frowned.

“I could have taken a pillow from home if you told me, you know. It’s no problem.”

He shook his head.

“It’s okay. This’ll work just fine.”

She sighed.

“All right.” She smiled. “Good night, Adrien.”

He smiled back, closed his eyes as he burrowed further down into the soft blanket.

“Good night.”

It didn’t take long for him to nod off at all. Marinette laid, gazing up at his face, happy to see him finally resting. He deserved this. She closed her eyes, basking in the afternoon sun and tried to follow his example. After a while it became obvious that she was not even as little tired as she thought she was and sleep was going to evade her after all.

Quietly she set up, mindful of the sleeping boy next to her. She took her sketchbook and pencil and trying not to wake Adrien up moved a bit closer to him, so she could prop her back against the tree and draw. Her pencil gliding over the page in flowing lines of a summer dress she was planning, the scritch scratching of her pencil, sometimes interrupted when erasing a mistake, created a nice ambient sound. Every now and then she glanced at Adrien sleeping next to her. He kept moving every now and then, trying to find a better, more comfortable position, obviously missing a pillow.

Marinette frowned and put away her sketchbook for a while. If she knew, she could have brought him one. She contemplated popping home to get it for him after all, but decided against leaving him here on his own. At last, he seemed to find a solution on his own. She was sitting fairly close to him to begin with, but with all his trashing he got even closer. And now, he sleepily threw a hand over her lap. Marinette froze in surprise, not knowing what to do, watching him with slight panic in her eyes. Then he pulled himself up and promptly killed her by laying his head on her thighs, loosely holding her legs to him.

Marinette took a deep breath. Okay. This was going to be a thing. It’s okay. She can work with this.

Thankfully, the nearest walkway was decently far from them and Adrien’s body was facing away from it, so any of the few pedestrians that strolled through this part of the park had little chance at identifying the famous model and paid them no mind. Well, except for this one old man with a walking cane and three Yorkshire terriers who looked deeply disapproving of their position, no matter that Adrien’s head was pillowed just above her knees and there was no way to misinterpret it as anything inappropriate. But Marinette didn’t make anything of it - if he had a problem, then it was just that - his problem.

Seeing that Adrien has taken the place where she previously had her sketchbook, and because she couldn’t draw as well if she held it up, she had to find some other way to occupy herself. Adrien’s stopped moving around, looking comfortable at last, so at least that was good. He’ll get some well deserved rest like this. Marinette closed her eyes to see if she could fall asleep this time.

She gave it up after a while, and looked around. Finding nothing around her to keep her attention, she turned to the boy sleeping in her lap. Rays of sunshine were dancing on his cheeks, bringing up the faint freckles he seemed to get during summers. Unable to stop herself, she smiled softly. His golden hair was all mussed up from his earlier fidgeting. Huh, seeing him like this almost reminded her of-

Wait, what was that? She leaned lower, her eyes firmly focused on him. There was something... dark in his hair? She squinted a bit to see it better, but it seemed fairly deep. Was that some piece of old leaf? It didn’t seem to move so it was probably not a bug - oh goodness she hoped it was not a tick. Then he could get Borreliosis and not even fleeing to live as a goat herder in the Himalayas was going to help her escape the wrath of Gabriel Agreste, and trying to pay him off with raw cashmere wool would not work out well either. Lightly she threaded her fingertips through the golden strands of his hair, pushing them away to get to the offending thing.

She closely inspected it, running her fingertip over the dark spot and let out a deep breath of relief. It was just a freckle. She straightened and leaned the back of her head against the tree trunk. The tragedy was warded off this time. Then her eyes widened in fear for the second time in a measly minute. Her hand was still in Adrien’s hair.

She carefully watched his face to see if he was waking. His eyes were still firmly shut, and the only way he reacted to having his head touched was a slight smile on his face as he faintly leaned into her hand. Well, okay then. Instead of ripping her hand away, as per her previous plan, Marinette’s tried for a different approach. As softly as she could, she started running her fingertips through his hair, smoothing them out and righting the mess she made of it in her previous action.

Adrien didn’t seem to mind her at all, rather the opposite, so she calmed down a notch and continued idly playing with his hair. This turned out to be so entertaining for her she completely lost track of time, happily watching the way the sunshine reflected on his hair as she moved it around.

Which is why she got seriously startled a considerable amount of time later, when he suddenly made a small noise in the back of his throat as he slowly woke up. Marinette froze, watching him blink a few times, trying to recollect where he was and what was happening. Then she realized her hand was still in his hair, so she ripped it away, holding it up against her chest.

He tried to turn his head to her and finding he couldn’t do it well, he moved the rest of his body, so he laid transversely to her, instead of parallel. Lying on his back, his head still on her thighs, he blinked again.

“I’m sorry,” Marinette blurted out quickly. “I thought there was a bug in your hair, above your left ear, but turns out it was just a -”

“A freckle, yeah. I have one.” He yawned. “There. And a few others.”

His voice was almost a whisper, rough with sleep, and Marinette was mesmerized. Adrien slowly propped himself up with his right hand, pulling himself into a somewhat sitting position. He rubbed at his eye and then he froze.

“Did I... Oh my, I’m so sorry, did I sleep on you?” he asked, bewildered.

A light blush covered Marinette’s cheeks.

“Um... well, sorta? I couldn’t fall asleep, so I settled here to sketch and, um, you were clearly uncomfortable without the pillow so you, ehm, found one.”

She nervously tapped her thighs, smiling awkwardly.

Adrien on the other hand turned red from the tip of his ears to his neck. He hid his face in his hands, clearly embarrassed.

“I’m so, so sorry, Marinette,” he moaned, still hiding. “That was so-”

“It’s alright, Adrien, I didn’t mind,” she cut him off.

He let down his hands, his face still all flushed.

“But I still shouldn’t have-”

“Look. You were asleep. You didn’t know what you were doing. I, on the other hand, am very glad you got to rest well. I mean, if it was me who fell asleep on you, would you want an apology?”

Adrien quickly shook his head.

“No, of course not. But-”

She put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it, like he so often did to her. It always helped to ground her when she was freaking out, so she hoped it could have a similar effect on him. After all, she already had the time to freak out and calm down about this situation; she already had all the arguments why this was perfectly okay figured out from when she used them on herself.

“Then believe me, when I say I don’t mind. We’re friends and personally, I am very okay with physical affections. If I wasn’t fine with this, I would have gotten you off me.”

This seemed to calm him down considerably.

“Right.”

“Now, are _you_ okay with this? I’ve noticed you tense up sometimes when people touch you unexpectedly - you really seemed to sleep much better after you’ve, uh, got a pillow, but if you want me to, I don’t know, stay out of your reach for any future naps, I can do that.”

He smiled at her and shook his head.

“No, no, I’m good, really. And it was a great nap, so thank you. And I’m fine with touching and stuff, it’s just like you’ve said - when it’s unexpected, or when I don’t know the person well. You’re - you’re fine.”

Marinette’s cheeks flamed up again.

“You’re fine too. I mean, I’m fine with you touching me. And holding my hand. As we already established. Because we’re friends. Right, that’s right. Okay.”

He laughed sheepishly.

“Okay.”

And then, before she could blunder another unnecessary ‘okay’, he asked: “Could I hug you?”.

She blinked and did her best to keep her nodding an appropriate level of enthusiastic.

“Yeah, sure. Of course.”

And so he did. He leaned toward her and wrapped her in his arms, holding her tightly.

“Thank you,” he muttered into her shoulder. “And for the nap too. It was great, really. I’m glad you asked me to join- wait, you said you didn’t sleep at all?”

She smiled, letting him out of her hold, as he twisted, trying to look at her face.

“Apparently I wasn’t as tired as I thought. But that’s okay. I rested plenty being here with you. And I sketched a lot, too. I had a lovely afternoon.”

“Me too. And I’m glad I got to spend it with you.”

While Marinette was fully convinced he was trying to straight up murder her, with his sweet words and a bright smile, she couldn’t help but smile back and think that this was a good way to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hoped that the 'Chapter Publication Date' thingie will let me 'queue up' the chapters in advance and post them for me, but nope, looks like I'm gonna have to do it manually. Oh well, I'll survive.
> 
> Hope you liked the new chapter!


	4. Termination? Pfft Nah, The Start of Something New!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because superpowered people deserve naps too.

Adrien wasn’t really sure how it happened, but it did and boy, was he not complaining.  Ever since the afternoon in the park, his friendship with Marinette has entered into a whole new era. Even with how awkward and stilted the affirmation of their friendship was, it did help the both of them to ease into it a bit more.

Marinette was no longer tensing up around him, mangling her sentences and stuttering when he talked to her, she really seemed to shake off the last of her reservations to him, whatever they may have been - Adrien still haven’t been able to figure that one out. And as Marinette was opening up to him, he was opening up to her. He found himself relaxing, forgetting about the perfect image he was supposed to embody at all times, getting lost in her playful teasing and easy friendship.

 She made sure to talk with him one on one, just because, even if they had just a few minutes between classes, she joked with him, teased him even, and best of all, she did not keep a polite width of space between them anymore. Sure, Nino could tease him all he could about his supposed ignorance of personal space and what he called 'the shoulder thing’, but now, Marinette leaned into his space just as much as Adrien did into hers. She touched his shoulders, squeezed his hands in support and hugged him every so often, just because they wanted to.

And it didn’t end there. What started as an accident born out of necessity became a tradition and so could Adrien and Marinette be found napping together, be it in the library after a long night, in the park when the weather was nice, on borrowed couches when taking a pause on group projects or on long bus rides to field trips - Nino and Alya had long accepted that their best friends will not be any fun on the bus, so they’ve decided to sit together.

And the absolute best thing was the cuddling that happened during those naps. Adrien quickly found out that he could bypass his need for a pillow when he could prop his head up on her shoulder, stomach, or thighs - when she was sitting up - and he was more than happy to return the favour, so they usually ended up in some sort of intertwined position.

Adrien couldn’t be happier about his relationship with his pretty blue eyed friend.

“That’s because you painfully obviously like her and the two of you act about as lovely dovely as flipping newlyweds, Adrien,” Nino exclaimed, once again, in frustration.

They were spending a rare afternoon together, sitting on the ground in Nino’s room playing videogames, since Adrien found a decent hole in his schedule for the day.

“I-I don’t— Nino! Marinette is my friend! I mean, I hug you just as much as her, and Alya too! And Chloé likes to hug me too and, well, I’m not in love with any of you, am I?”

“Yeah, I know, but it’s not even about the hugs now, dude. It’s like... your general attitude around her.”

Nino set his controller down on the floor, and turned to face Adrien.

“I don’t know what you mean, Nino.”Adrien scratched the back of his neck, looking down and then on his best friend.

“I don’t think I treat Marinette anyhow special to you guys.  And the naps and cuddling, well, that was just something we do. Besides, somehow we often happen to have a late night on the same day, so we’re tired at the same times.” He chuckled. “Sometimes we joke about founding a school nap club, and turning some old unused room into a nap zone, so we don’t keep hogging the library couches, but then we would just hog that and two people don’t really count as a club, so...”

Nino sighed and gave his friend an exasperated smile. Then he tackled him to give him a noogie.

“Say that you like her, come on, admit it!” he laughed as Adrien weakly tried to escape.

“Nooo, my perfect hair! Nino, how could you!” he whined dramatically in between giggles. “You’ll pay for this!”

And with that he went to retaliate with tickling.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before they had to say goodbye and Adrien went back to his house. Not for long though, as he soon sneaked back out through a window as Chat Noir. There was a patrol scheduled for the evening and there was nothing that could make him late to seeing his lady. He came too early, but he knew that, so he settled down on the designated rooftop, watching over the city lit by streetlight, and waited for Ladybug to come.

Their patrols have never been anything serious - not even in the very beginning when they started out. Paris was too big and too busy for them to seek out criminals, and any of their plans they came up with for finding where Papillon was hiding have turned out to be in vain. That’s not to say that they didn’t help when they did come across anyone who needed it, they helped aplenty, but they didn’t seek trouble out. After all, the police could handle crime, but the two of them were the only ones who could handle akuma attacks. So mostly they just did a round around the city centre every once in a while, to be seen and to reassure the public, and also to hang out with each other, as akuma battles were not the best place to keep a relaxed friendly conversation.

Ladybug’s arrival was announced by a tap of her feet hitting the roof and a big yawn.

“Tired already, my lady?” he turned to look up at her.

She nodded and plopped down next to him, looking out at their city.

“Yeah.  I had an early morning today, helping out my parents with something. So I’m pretty drained, but I didn’t want to cancel on you. We didn’t patrol together in ages.”

She was right. Majority of their patrols have been solo lately, a fact that was balanced by the both of them being less stressed as they didn’t have to reschedule or postpone their civilian responsibilities. Though to be honest, even before that Chat noticed that Ladybug has seemed more rested lately, beaming with happiness even. She always said that she got to spend time with friends or that she had a good nap, when he asked her, but then, he did say the same when she asked him, as he was also in a better state of mind thanks to his new relationship with Marinette and all the naps they took together.

Somehow, he found, this had other effects on him as Chat Noir. He noticed he was quieter on patrols, not feeling the need to fill every silence and talk about anything and everything that happened to him that day, because he already told Marinette. He didn’t feel the need to perform all the silly antics that made Ladybug laugh in exasperation because he already made Marinette giggle with some of them and there was only so much adorable he could handle in a day.

Just as he calmed down from the initial rush of freedom at the very beginning of becoming a superhero, he noticed that the more relaxed he got as Adrien the less did he act out as Chat. And well, he did have to admit he did act out a bit. Teeny tiny bit. Well actually a lot and it was embarrassing to think of all the things he’s done. Of course not all of it was bad, and he did still act silly to make his lady laugh but it was not the same level of over-the-top-ness as before.

“You don’t have to go today if you don’t want to. I can handle one more solo patrol if you want to catch up on sleep.” he turned to look at her, her face lit up by the soft warm glow of the city lights.

Her eyes were closed, and she was resting her chin on her knees. A light cool breeze blew past them in the warm night.

“Nah, I’m good. I’ve been sleeping better lately, so I should be able to handle one long day. Besides, you’ll catch me if I topple off a roof.” She smirked at him.

His mask moved in a way that indicated that he raised an eyebrow.

“Why of course I will. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t prefer to save myself the heart attack of seeing you fall. After all, cats may have nine lives, but that’s not really a high number in this line of work.”

She laughed and lightly shoved his shoulder, making him dramatically spill onto the rooftop.

“Say, Ladybug,” he said from his place on the floor, not looking at her, but instead on the few stars visible on the night sky in between the clouds.

“Mhm?”

“How about before we start, you take a little nap?”

She frowned.

“I don’t know, Chat...”

“Just a small one. I’ll keep watch over you, so you don’t have to worry about anything and wake you up in, say, twenty minutes? And then we can go run around the rooftops without me worrying you’ll faceplant on the street every time we jump.” He sat up settling next to her, their legs dangling down over the street below, and gave her a teasing smile.

“I’ll even tell you a good night story.”

She mulled over it for a while. Then finally nodded, and after some more thinking did something he did not expect - she lay down with her head on his lap. In the heat of a battle they were often all over each other, but otherwise? There were times when she would have never done something like that, whether for want of professionalism or to avoid seemingly leading him on. To see her trust him so much - trust him not to turn this situation into something that would make her uncomfortable - warmed his whole body, his heart overflowing with bubbly feelings.

He leaned back on his hands, and with his eyes on the city started quietly retelling one of his favourite childhood tales his mother used to read to him, until he heard her breaths even out as she fell asleep.

Twenty minutes later, he gently shook her shoulder to wake her up, trying to shy away from watching the languid way she stretched out her muscles.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go home and sleep? I really wouldn’t mind.”

She yawned.

“Nah, I’m fine. And the nap really helped a lot.”

He gathered himself up and then lent down to give her a hand, easily pulling her up on her feet.

“Come on, Chaton. I want to get home early today.”

The next hour and half was spent in relative silence, bits of quiet conversations cutting over the bustle of the city, sometimes interrupted by Ladybug’s yawns. It was obvious she was still more tired than she let on, so he kept their conversation simple, mostly telling her vague impressions of his day, omitting anything that could be found incriminating to his civilian identity. But when the patrol ended and they had to say good bye, she surprised him again, giving him a small hug.

“Thank you for the nap, Chaton,” she murmured into his shoulder before pulling away.

“It’s... It’s nothing, really. I’m just glad you got to rest a bit.” He scratched the back of his head nervously.

“Me too. So thanks for talking me into it.” She smiled, threw out her yoyo and jumped off the roof, shouting a goodbye.

“You’re welcome,” he sighed, waving at her retreating figure.

He was so going to squeal into his pillow just as soon as he’ll get home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like it!!


	5. A Revealing Reaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bonus reveal I just couldn't help myself but add!

Ladybug’s life could _not_ become any better even if she tried. Sure, the fact that Papillon was still somewhere out there, ruining her academic career and personal relationships with constant interruptions via akuma attacks, that _was_ a bit of a problem. But then again, it did somehow lead to her napping with her crush while cuddling on a semi regular basis and who was she to complain about that. While they weren’t dating - to the surprise of many - they were much closer as friends now and well, that counted as a lot for her.

She felt like walking on clouds.

 “And what’s got you in such a good mood, my lady?” said a voice next to her.

She was sitting on a random Parisian rooftop, enjoying the sunbeams hitting her face.

“Hey, Chat,” she said, not opening her eyes. “Whatever brings you here? I thought you said you won’t be able to make it today?”

“Got time off on good behaviour. Then I saw a lovely lady enjoying the sunbeams and thought I could join in for a catnap.” He yawned and settled next to her.

And here was another change in her life. Ever since her nap on the patrol two months back, it kind of ... became a thing. If one of them was tired before a patrol, they took a little while to powernap while the other one stood guard over them. They never napped at the same time - a couple of sleeping superheroes on a rooftop made for a very inviting scene for a certain supervillain and as much as Ladybug loved the citizens of Paris, their tendency to gush about superhero sightings all over the social media and therefore putting their whereabouts for anyone - including Papillon - to see, was tremendously irritating.

“So what is it? You keep smiling to yourself and sighing, had a really nice day?”

Ladybug thought back to her day - the late Saturday morning, the very successful fabric shopping trip, an afternoon out with Alya visiting the flea market and to top it off they stopped by on a Gabriel photoshoot, where she spend Adrien’s entire break talking to the boy and he invited them to watch the rest of the shoot, asking one of the Gabriel interns if she could shadow her for the afternoon. She learned so much about the behind-the-scenes of a catalogue shoot.

Yes, her day was indeed very nice.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to stay that way for long, as the sounds of screaming and commotion several streets away reached their ears. Ladybug groaned.

“Ugh. Come on, let’s go save Paris again. Hopefully it won’t take long.”

***

It did take long. It actually took way longer than the two of them thought possible, but the akuma could teleport themselves at will, sending them running all over Paris, always disappearing just milliseconds before they could reach it. By the time the fight ended, Chat Noir has had to recharge twice and Ladybug wasn’t spared either. She launched the Lucky Charm her previous transformation have her, releasing the Miraculous Ladybug spell to restore the city, and yawned.

“I’m wiped,” proclaimed Chat Noir, when he returned from delivering the confused former akuma from the rooftop to the ambulance waiting nearby. The city founded a special response team a few months after the attacks first started, that provided help to akuma victims  after the fight was done (be it shock treatment, offers of professional counsellors to help with whatever problem that caused the akumatization or simple directions home).

Looking around, Ladybug found that the fight has left them not only way away from where it started, but also in a part of town she wasn’t really familiar with.

“Me too. And it’ll take ages to get back home from here.”

From their response time, both heroes were aware of the fact that they lived close to the city centre, on the Left Bank of the river. They didn’t talk about the fact a lot, to keep their secret identities, but sometimes their tongues just slipped, especially as tired as they were now.

Since Chat Noir didn’t have to use his Cataclysm in his last transformation, and Ladybug’s Lucky Charm was from her previous, neither of their Miraculouses was beeping the countdown for once.

“Yeah,” sighed Chat Noir. “I’ll need to take a breather before I go vault all over the city again. May I invite the lady for a nice sit down on that pretty rooftop over there? It’s kinda flat and it has a lot of chimneys to lean against.”

Ladybug laughed. “Well if you say it like that, how could I resist.”

They slowly went over the direction Chat pointed out, jumping over the streets, enjoying the fact they didn’t have to rush for once. They found a nice spot near the middle of the building and settled down next to each other, hidden behind several of the chimneys, leaning their backs against one and their shoulders against one another.

“Do you want to sleep?” Chat asked.

Ladybug shook her head and looked at him.

“You sleep. You had to work before this, I had a free day. Besides, you can then piggyback me to the Eiffel tower and I can nap like that,” she teased.

“What if I want you to piggyback me, huh?” he returned, but slung down, leaning his head on her shoulder.

“Nah, you throw off my aerodynamics and generally just cramp my style.”

Chat laughed.

“Oh no, I cramp your style, that’s a tragedy. Whatever will I do with myself now? A life devoid of Ladybug piggybacking me, how can I ever deal with that?”

His voice was still teasing, but a yawn has cut into his dramatic wailing, ruining the effect.

“Sleep well, kitty.” She brought up an arm behind him, patting his head before settling it on his shoulders.

“Nighty night, my lady.”

It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep, his body slumping against hers even more. Sometimes Ladybug could swear Chat Noir was as liquid as his namesakes, managing to fold himself into all sorts of weird positions and even relax in them. Even if being Ladybug made wonders to her flexibility, she was nowhere near Chat’s level. Even so, she gently removed him from her shoulder and settled him in her lap, so he doesn’t wake up with a mean neck pain from his previous position.

She leaned her head against the chimney behind her and looked up at the now night sky, partially hidden by white fluffy clouds sailing slowly over it. While she was glad her partner was the one sleeping right now - he always worked so hard and the akuma managed to get him good several times - her eyes were also threatening to close down on her, the quiet of the city outskirts lulling her into a fake sense of safety.

But they were never safe and she hated that. She hated that every single time she was out and about as Ladybug, Papillon could target her in a brief unguarded moment, just because they still didn’t know where could the man be hiding and what was he plotting. She had nightmares about Volpina’s illusions of Papillon teleporting just out of their reach, appearing suddenly behind her and taking her earrings, and Tikki, being forbidden from sharing other Miraculous holders’ powers, could do little to either reassure or warn her. If anything, the teleportation akuma today showed very well just how easy it would be to swipe their Miraculouses with such a power, as it came very close to doing just that several times during the fight.

She hated that she could never fully relax and goof around with Chat as she often did with her friends. Well, that didn’t mean that they never goofed off, really, they did and not even remotely rarely, but they still had that little piece of their attention trained on their surroundings, never relaxing completely.  It’s why their naps meant so much to her - she knew she could trust him to watch over her while she slept, unconscious to the world, and she knew he trusted her to do the same.

She sighed and started running her hand down her partners back. There was something reassuring in that and sometimes she could even get him to purr. She loved that and guiltily tried to wheedle the sounds out of him every time she got the opportunity to, trying to reassure him there’s nothing embarrassing about it and he has nothing to be ashamed for, but he still took a long time to shake the feelings off.

She yawned and rubbed her closing eyes.

Even now he didn’t purr much, but at least he was comfortable with it in ways he wasn’t when it first happened, though the first time he saw her absentmindedly eat a flower helped with that a lot. They had a really nice talk about Miraculous side effects over a shared snack of fried crickets after that.

A tiny little whimper brought her out of her musings. She frowned and looked down at Chat Noir. Was he dreaming? Waking up already?

She ran her hand down his back again in attempt to try and sooth him but his body jerked when she rested her palm at his side.

“Chaton? What is it?” she whispered.

Her partner stirred and blindly turned himself to face the direction which her voice was coming from. One of his cat ears twitched.

“Mh-hurts,” he mumbled.

Her eyebrows furrowed.

“The Miraculous spell didn’t heal you? Where else does it hurt?”

Chat shook his head slowly.

“Not the akuma. It’s,” he yawned, “a freckle. I had to have it removed. I think I pulled the stitches during the fight, but that got fixed.” His eyes fluttered open for a second before closing again.

“Still hurts to touch though.”

Ladybug relaxed at that explanation - there was nothing she could do against pains acquired before the attack, so she was glad it wasn’t anything too serious.

 “Like the one in my hair, remember? I have a few more that are big and ugly that I have to have monitored. I don’t mind them but father always has them covered up or photoshopped out if they’re visible in the modelling photos.”

Ladybug sat frozen, suddenly wide awake.

“And this one was worrying my doctor so they took it out.”

Her heart was beating so hard she thought it might as well jump out of her chest. She took a deep breath.

“Adrien?”

“Mhm?” came the sleepy reply.

She breathed in and out in attempt to calm down. Carefully, she returned her hand to his back making sure to avoid the sore spot. To her delight, a quiet purr began to rumble in his chest at the touch. He batted at her other arm a few times before catching it and pressing her palm to his face and nuzzling into it.

“What is it, Nette?”

“I-” her voice hitched. “I’m so glad it’s you.”

He frowned in confusion. His eyes opened and he blinked several times to chase the sleep out of his mind, trying to get his bearings. She could see the emotions play out on his face as the reality of what just happened sunk in. Then, in the blink of an eye, he sat up and threw his hands around her, burrowing his face in her shoulder.

“Marinette?” he asked breathlessly, to make sure.

“Yes, Chaton?” she whispered back.

He straightened up and let her go just to cup her face in his palms.

“I’m so glad it’s you too.”

Ladybug giggled, a blush spreading over her cheeks at his proximity and the sincerity in his voice.

“I really hope this isn’t a dream,” he murmured, and hugged her once more, one of his hands at the back of her head as their cheeks pressed together.

“It isn’t. But as happy as I am, it’s not all good. We’re going to have to be so much more careful now.”

She sighed and let go of him, but kept his hands in hers.

“Right. Of course,” he looked down. “I’m sorry, Ladybug.”

“It was an accident. We’re both so tired and nap together so often - well, looking back at it, this was bound to happen one day.”

“But still. I couldn’t forgive myself if Papillon got to you through me.”

“There isn’t anything we can do about knowing now though. We’ll just have to be extra careful not to get targeted.” She squeezed his hands. “Besides, it’s not all bad either. We can hang out together without a time limit all the time. We can help each other with excuses when an akuma attacks.”

A smile started to form on his face.

“We can plan together. We can alert each other of attacks. We can take naps together before patrol in one of our rooms.” He smirked. “I can text you all the cat memes I’ve been saving for you.”

“And I can text _you_ all the cat memes I’ve been saving for you.”

They giggled together, before getting more serious again.

“We’ll... It’s going to be alright. _We’re_ going to be alright. We’re a team. We can do this.”

She wasn’t sure if she was more trying to reassure her partner or herself. Chat took a deep breath and ran the back of his fingers along the side of her face.

“We can.  And we will. I - we just found each other and there’s nothing that will tear us apart. Because we won’t let it.”

She gave him a smile.

“Alright.”

They settled next to each other again, their shoulders pressed together, her head on his shoulder, his head on the top of hers. They talked a bit more, about what this means to them, their fears and worries. Their hopes.

But before long, the tiredness caught up on Ladybug again and she had to fight to keep her eyes open. Chat Noir took it upon himself to fulfil their earlier teasing and carried her to her house on his back. She blushed profoundly when he set her down on her balcony and kissed her hand, bent in an elaborate bow. There were things they didn’t talk about just yet. But it didn’t matter. She had her inklings and he had his, but they had to properly take in all that happened today and sort their feelings before they jumped into anything else.

But when he greeted her with another hand kiss the next morning in school and called her a princess, well, nobody really bat an eye on it. After all, they were already “practically dating” in the eyes of everyone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END!
> 
> Thank you for sticking with me till the end of this story and thank you so much for all the love you sent my way. I hope you enjoyed this!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like this!!
> 
> Phew, I can’t believe I actually wrote this. If anyone is curious, I first made this document on the 30th of June, 2015, and it’s been sitting in my writing folder ever since, so I'm glad I finally got to writing it.


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